UEFA Training Ground in impressive shape

Two years after its online launch, UEFA Training Ground continues to go from strength to strength with a presentation at the recent 8th UEFA Grassroots Workshop in Hamburg highlighting the vast array of content already available to users and the potential for further growth in the years ahead.

Support for all
The Training Ground project began in 2006 with its online launch taking place before the following year's UEFA Cup final. A video-driven website aimed at supporting UEFA's players, coaches and referees and overseen by UEFA's technical director Andy Roxburgh, Training Ground is a joint venture between UEFA Football Development and uefa.com which aims to promote mass participation in football across Europe.

‘Tell your stories'
In Hamburg, the section's editor Peter Sanderson told grassroots coaches from across Europe: "As well as teaching skills and drills to coaches and players, one of the key roles of the UEFA Training Ground is to bring together the 53 national associations. We see the website as a platform for every association to tell their story about initiatives which have been successful in their countries. For example we already have features on the growth of women's football in Norway and the very successful 'Watering the Grassroots' conference in Ireland, two fantastic examples of how grassroots football can benefit from a well-structured campaign. The idea is that all the associations can see these projects on the site and, if they think it will work, try and run them in their own country."

Rapid growth
Such has been the growth of the Training Ground section of uefa.com that it is already the world's biggest grassroots football website in terms of traffic, with 200 videos – or 40 hours – of content already online. The site has grown to five times its original size, with new sections including associations, referees, e-learning courses, futsal, beach and street soccer and the Team Challenge, a video competition in which users can submit their own skills and drills and see themselves next to the likes of Kaká and David Beckham on uefa.com.

TactX tool
This summer will also feature the launch of the new TactX tool, an application that can be used by coaches of all levels to organise training drills, devise tactics and analyse performances. Users will be able to demonstrate player moves via computer, with high quality 3D animations developed from motion capture video that are simple to create, edit and can be viewed from a number of different angles. TactX allows coaches to present their drills and tactics using a language that children understand with fantastic animation, and yet the drill is very simple to put together, helping coaches to communicate their ideas regardless of their players' age, ability or language.

Long-term plans
More long-term plans include more user-generated content, closer tactical analysis of UEFA club and national team competitions, to become more closely aligned with the national associations among other features, while ten language versions of the section will also be implemented. Training Ground is planned to be relaunched in 2010, with innovations to include the ability to post video and text responses to content, more dynamic navigation and greater emphasis on educational elements driven by e-learning.

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